Olympic gymnast Danell Leyva talks about coming out in a new video for the Olympic Channel.
Said Leyva: “I hope to one day live in a world where your sexuality is as irrelevant as whether you're right or left-handed. You know, it's such a non-issue. It literally means nothing that if you're just like, ‘Oh, you're left-handed? That's cool. Oh, you're bi? That's cool. The only way we can do that, we can achieve that, is by making it normal, by doing things like what I did by coming out publicly.”
“I didn't think it was gonna blow up the way it did,” Leyva added.
“In the post, I said that I'm still trying to figure out between whether I'm bi or pan,” Leva continued. “It was nice to have people be like, ‘You don't have to label it. You don't have to just be ‘a thing.' It's an ever-changing fluid thing, so you don't have to worry about that.' That was nice because that was certainly reassuring.”
Leyva said the response to his coming out, which happened on National Coming Out Day, has been “overwhelmingly supportive” but says it's “still scary.”
Leyva's coming out, earlier this month:
“For a long time I've known that I wasn't straight. But because of certain very personal reasons, I always rejected that side of me. Earlier this year I finally understood that I'm bi/pan (still trying to figure that one out) but…I also realized that, as of now at least, I'm not attracted to cis men. (That comes with those personal reasons I just mentioned). But I felt that it was time for me to finally share this with you all. As most of you can imagine, this is absolutely terrifying….
“I also realized that, as of now at least, I'm not attracted to cis men. (That comes with those personal reasons I just mentioned). But I felt that it was time for me to finally share this with you all. As most of you can imagine, this is absolutely terrifying….One of the main reasons why I've never come out publicly is because throughout my life, for whatever reason, other people's perception of my own sexuality have always been imposed onto me and it has always made me reject it even more. It made me uncomfortable. Not because…
“I was offended, because being gay is in no way offensive, but more so because it was and always has been/felt very intrusive. So this post, apart from being my way of sharing this with you all is also a reminder…..A reminder to check the way we say certain things to people. Because sometimes our hearts and intentions may be in the right place, but we never truly know what they're dealing with. I love you all.”
